January 22, 2012

The Detroit Zoological Gardens c. 1906, when it was converted into a horse market.
Photo courtesy of The Detroit News Archives. Used with permission.

For less than a year between 1883 and 1884, Corktown was home to the very first Detroit Zoo. It was a privately-owned enterprise founded by businessmen with apparently no professional experience in animal husbandry. The Detroit Zoological and Acclimatization Society filed for incorporation on June 20, 1883, stating that it was established "for the purpose of exhibiting all manner of wild and other animals, plants, minerals, and other objects of natural history of every kind." It was founded with $10,000 in capital stock and listed the following men as its officers:

Dr. Theodore Van Hensen Law, President; practicing physician.

Harrie R. Newberry, Vice-President; also an officer of the Detroit Steel and Spring Works.

J. Logan Chipman, Judge of the Superior Court, later elected to Congress.

Albert H. Raynor, co-owner of the printing company Raynor & Taylor.

As mentioned in an earlier post, there doesn't seem to be any connection between the demise of William C. Coup's bankrupt circus and the zoo on Michigan Avenue. Although the zoo was built on Luther Beecher's circus grounds--where Coup's animals were auctioned off--that location was not the Zoological Society's first choice. An article in the Detroit Free Press on May 27, 1883 mentioned that the group first attempted to lease land next to the Art Loan Building on Larned Street downtown. But on June 15, the association signed a lease with Luther Beecher for the space on Michigan Avenue.

A number of the animals for the Detroit Zoological Garden have arrived and are now domiciled in a temporary structure on the Michigan avenue circus grounds. The animals consist of a lion called "The Duke of Wellington," a lioness, a deer and a hyena. The garden will be located on the grounds and work on the structure will be begun at once.

Three days later, zoo officials left for New York in order to obtain more animals.

The new brick building for the Zoological Garden was designed by Henry Engelbert, an architect who had previously lived and worked in New York City. His best known accomplishment in Detroit is probably St. Albertus Church in Poletown.

The zoological building was estimated to cost $6,000 to construct. The masonry was done by Albert G. Hollands, and the roof by the firm Sparks & Hageman. Construction began July 14, 1883 and was completed by the end of the following month. The structure measured 50 feet wide by 120 feet deep and held the zoo's offices, zookeeper's living quarters, ticket office, waiting room, aquarium, aviary, and winter shelter for some animals. South of the main building along the western edge of the lot was a narrow, 160-foot-long structure that held steel cages for carnivorous animals. South of that was a structure of similar size which contained the pens for less dangerous beasts. Along the perimeter of the property was a 20-foot-wide macadamized walkway that was flooded in the winter for ice skating. The lot was surrounded by a ten-foot fence, and in the center of the garden was a miniature artificial lake for waterfowl. North of the lake was a band pagoda, and the property was illuminated with electric light.

The approximate boundaries of the Zoological Garden's lot, as
best as I could interpret the contradictory descriptions of it.
Image courtesy of Sanborn Maps.

The opening of the zoo was originally scheduled for August 15, but the date was pushed back at least twice. Most of the animals did not arrive until the end of the month. An August 26 news item mentions a bear cub had arrived, and two days later the arrival of an elk from McKee Rankin's deer park on Bois Blanc ("Boblo") Island. Even a "large snake" captured by a local porter named George Brown was donated to the zoo.

Just before the zoo's opening, the Detroit Free Press published this list of the animals on display (punctuation as in the original):

These comprise huge cages of rare birds of many kinds, a colony of monkeys, two black bears, one cub of the same species, one sun bear, a beautiful animal, one jaguar, one hyena of most unamiable aspect, one superb silver lioness, a fat-tail sheep, the celebrated lion Duke, who has killed three men and evidently "aches" to kill another, a noble elk lately purchased of McKee Rankin, a pair of Cape (African) buffalos, the yak Mollie, so well known to visitors at Central Park, New York, a pair of sacred cattle and calf, and India deer, who would run his spike horns through a man in a second if he could get the opportunity, a boa-constrictor, thirteen and one-half feet long, foxes, badgers, coons, Muscovy ducks, and a pair of camels.

The Detroit Zoological Garden finally opened on Wednesday, September 5, 1883. Work had continued throughout the previous night to ensure the date was met, but even then the scheduled opening time of 10am was pushed back to 3pm. Mayor William G. Thompson and the city council attended the opening ceremony. After a brief speech, the mayor declared the Zoological Garden officially open.

The superintendent of the zoo was businessman Orrin W. DeLano. He was the brother of one of the zoo's investors, Alexander DeLano. Previous to this job, he was a manager at the American District Carriage and Express Company.

Other employees of the zoo as listed in the 1884 city directory included:

David A. Stoner, zookeeper, lived on site. He previously worked at a lumber yard.

Louis Lariviere, zookeeper, also lived on site.

John Fisher, laborer, 342 Prospect St. The year before he was employed by a carpet and upholstery store.

Two weeks after the zoo opened, it was announced that the Canadian-born veterinarian Dr. Alexander John Chandler was appointed Veterinary Surgeon of the organization. Chandler later moved to Arizona, where in 1912 he would found the town that now bears his name.

A Human Exhibit

It was not uncommon for zoos in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to display "primitive" people. The Congolese pygmy Ota Benga, displayed at the Bronx Zoo, may be the most famous example. On November 11th, 1883, the Detroit Free Press announced, "Besides the numerous wild animals, the birds and the fishes, there is a band of Apache Indians who give realistic representations--four times a day--of their corn dance, the scalp dance and the war dance."

It was around this time that James H. Kelly, the advertising agent for Adam Forepaugh's Circus, was taken on by the zoo to handle its promotion.

On November 13, 1883, the Free Press published the following story about the zoo's Apache exhibit:

The Lost Tribes

Mayor Thompson received a letter yesterday morning from Walter G. Marmon, Laguna, N. M., stating that he had received a letter from Frank Howe, chief and manager of the Pueblos, stating that his partner had skipped with all the funds, leaving himself and his tribe stranded at the Franklin House. He asked for transportation home. Mr. Marmon asked for further particulars.
"Jim," exclaimed an irreverent reporter, as he met James H. Kelly, Forepaugh's agent, later in the day, "have you got Frank Howe and his Pueblos up at the 'Zoo,' passing them off upon an unsuspecting public as bloodthirsty Apaches?"
"The confounded Indians are there, but Howe isn't. He's in Chicago making arrangements to exhibit them there. Of course they're Apaches. The Apaches were all broken up into small tribes in 1642, and--"
"Never mind the historical lecture! What are you going to do with them?"
"Do with them? Great Scott! I can't do anything with them. They don't understand a word of English, and I can't make them do anything. The place was full yesterday, and I wanted them to get up and shake themselves so that the people could see them, but they sat there like a row of tobacco signs, and all I could get out of them was a grunt. I wish Howe would come back. I'd either make them dance or get out."

Ten days later, the same paper reported:

James H. Kelly received a letter yesterday from one Pratt, Governor of the Pueblo Indians, of Lacuna, N. M., inquiring as to the whereabouts of that portion of the tribe that were recently at the Zoo. James replied that they are with their manager, Howe, in Chicago.

I have not found any reference to the Pueblos/Apaches in any later Detroit papers.

Additions to the Menagerie and Promotional Schemes

A few more animals were added to the zoo's collection after its opening. An additional lioness was brought in, as well as an animal trainer named Max Caspari. Dr. Eduard Dorsch of Monroe donated two bald eagles in November of 1883. Two months later it was reported that "the latest arrival at the Zoo Garden is the electric eel from Mexico--he is perfectly wonderful. Electricity can be felt at any time coming from his body." Plans to obtain an elephant and a rhinoceros were announced, but never came to fruition.

On Valentine's Day of 1884, both a "sacred cow" and a camel were born at the zoo. The sacred cow lived only two hours.

The camel died two weeks later.

In order to capitalize on the draw of baby animals, a mother and baby African buffalo were brought to the zoo the following April. They proved to be popular, as the Free Press reported, "The ladies were intensely interested in the baby buffalo and went into ecstasies over the 'dear little pet'".

The Zoological Garden seemed to change managers as frequently as it purchased new animals. Orrin Delano resigned his position as manager in December of 1883 and was replaced by Harry K. Long, a circus performer who had previously worked for P. T. Barnum. On February 29, it was reported that the new manger was Garry A. Hough, an actor who lived at 11 Sycamore Street in North Corktown. He was followed by at least one more manager, Clarence S. Yates, formerly of the Detroit and Saline Plank Road Company. He went on to become a reporter for The Detroit Evening News until his premature death in 1889 at the age of 28.

In order to maintain attendance during the winter months, an ice skating rink was opened on the property on December 17, 1883. Contests for "fancy skating" were held, and music was frequently supplied by the Tenth Infantry Band. It was claimed that "upwards of 3,000 persons" visited the zoo and ice rink on New Year's Day 1884, but this is almost certainly an exaggeration. The ice became a popular spot for curling, and was frequented by the Granite Curling Club and the Detroit Curling Club.

Among the zoo's winter promotions was a beauty contest held in February 1884--or, as the Free Press called it, an "alleged" beauty contest. A reporter wrote, "The contest of beauty at the Zoological Garden has failed to materialize to any extensive exhibit of symmetry, grace and embellishment, only three forlorn-looking females with a so-much-a-week expression of countenance occupying the seats reserved for contestants." (2/15/1884)

The End of the Zoo

Despite the impressive attendance reported by the zoo, it was unable to meet its financial obligations. The builder of the Zoological Garden sued the owners in May 1884, followed by the architect in June, for fees owed to them. The ownership of the building was transferred to Wayne County Savings Bank on May 13th, although it was allowed to remain open to the public for two months. Luther Beecher retained ownership of the land and continued to rent the field west of the zoo to traveling circuses.

Just as with the liquidation of W. C. Coup's circus two years before, the animals of the Detroit Zoological Garden were auctioned off under the supervision of Wayne County Sheriff Conrad Clippert. The zoo closed on July 29, 1884 and the property and animals were auctioned off immediately afterward. Although the menagerie was appraised at $4,000, the sale only brought in $1,382.39. Among the bidders were attendees of the Coup auction, including Harry L. Piper of the Toronto Zoological Garden and a representative of the Cincinnati Zoo. The animals remaining at the zoo at the time of the auction included coyote, black bears, sun bears, wolves, leopard, hyena, silver lion, lion, lioness, springbok, deer, elk, African buffalo, camels, sacred cattle, yak, goats, ram, mare, colt, jackass, four raccoons, eight monkeys, rats, white rabbits, pigeons, cockatoos, hawks, parrots, eagles, quails, peacocks, and owls.

Years later, the following explanation for the establishment of the zoo was printed in the Free Press:

The company did not propose to make money out of the enterprise, but sought rather to earn a reputation for the place which would induce the city to buy them out and provide, with greater financial resources, a resort similar in character to the zoological gardens in other cities.

Adaptive Reuse

The structure at 509-511 Michigan Avenue stood for twenty years after the animals left. In December 1884 it was converted into the Dime Roller Rink. The lot behind the building was again flooded and opened as an ice skating rink with a new entrance on Church Street.

By September of 1885, the building was remodeled and opened under new management as the West Side Roller Rink. The proprietor was an electrician named Alfred G. Liggett. Between 1886 and 1887 it operated as the Granite Rink, apparently after the Granite Curling Club. The new lessee was Thomas Hyland.

In 1888 the building was listed as vacant. At the time a newspaper article described it as an "old, dilapidated, tumble-down brick structure". In the building's remaining years, the following people and businesses were listed at the address:

Circuses were still held in the vicinity of the old zoo building.
This 1893 photo was taken on 11th Street facing east. The back
of the top of the zoo's facade can be see on the upper right.
Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.

January 14, 2012

The Detroit Zoo we know today opened in Royal Oak in 1928. It was the creation of the Detroit Zoological Society, founded in 1911--but it was not the first "Detroit Zoo". In 1883, the short-lived Detroit Zoological Garden opened in Corktown, on Michigan Avenue just west of Tenth Street.

The story is often told of the circus that went bankrupt, whose collection of animals became the first Detroit Zoo. The earliest reference I've found to the legend appeared in The Detroit News on April 13, 1934. A photo montage entitled "Photographic Reminders of the Good Old Days" included a circa-1906 photo of the original zoo in Corktown. The caption below it references the circus story.

Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.
Photograph is courtesy of The Detroit News Archives. Used with permission.

The legend is embellished even further in The First Fifty Years: An informal history of the Detroit Zoological Park and the Detroit Zoological Society, by the zoo's Curator of Education, William A. Austin, in 1974:

The first zoological park in Detroit was established in the early 1880's, and was the result of a small traveling circus going bankrupt. The owners of the circus slipped out of town in the middle of the night and simply abandoned their animals. The citizens of the City of Detroit took up a collection to assist in housing and feeding these creatures, and the area was opened to the public on September 5, 1883.

This version of events is repeated in Wonders Among Us: Celebrating 75 Years of the Detroit Zoo by the Detroit Zoological Society, and referenced on the zoo's website and in a documentary on its history.

But what really happened? The following is an attempt to reconstruct the events as they were reported at the time by the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit Evening News.

"W. C. Coup's New United Monster Shows"

This advertisement for the doomed circus ran in the Free Press in the days leading up to its Detroit opening on August 23rd, 1882.

The circus was owned by William Cameron Coup, one of the co-founders of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. He and another circus owner convinced P.T. Barnum to turn his museum into a traveling show in 1871, but the men parted ways in 1876. Coup was the first showman to use circus trains and circuses with more than one ring.

Coup's 1882 season had been going poorly, including a "premature and financially disastrous" tour of Texas (N 8/24/1882). Then disaster struck in the early morning hours of August 20, 1882. Coup's circus train was traveling in two sections from a show in Cairo, Illinois to his next engagement when the first train stalled on the tracks and was subsequently truck by the second one. Five drivers were killed, and about twenty other workers (but no performers) were injured. The circus arrived so late for the next three shows (Delphi, Indiana; Columbia City, Indiana; and Detroit) that there was no time to publicize the show with the customary circus parade. (F 1/11/1884, 3)

Despite the setbacks, Coup put on two shows in Detroit on August 23 as promised. The tents were set up in an undeveloped field in Corktown on the south side of Michigan Avenue just west of Tenth Street. Eleventh Street did not run through the property until 1890. The land, owned by Luther Beecher, was where the Zoological Garden would later be built.

William C. Coup's New United Monster Show was no "small traveling circus" as described by Austin. In addition to the 175 performers and a full menagerie of animals--including an aquarium!--there was a "Grand Historical Tableaux" of 500 plaster statues which recreated the assassination of President James A. Garfield and the conviction of his murderer, Charles J. Guiteau. The statues of Guiteau were dressed in the very clothes he wore on the days of the assassination and his conviction.

A poster was for W. C. Coup's 1879 season by the Stobridge Lithograph Company.
Courtesy of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

Coup was so heavily in debt by the time he arrived in Detroit that he was unable to pay many of his performers. On the day of the first show, the circus' equestrian star Frank Melville, filed a praecipe for writ of attachment in Wayne County Circuit Court, which was granted (F 8/24/1882, 6). He was quickly followed by a half dozen other employees, including George Loyal, "The Human Cannon Ball".

From left to right: Frank Melville, George Loyal, and Ella Zuila.
Zuila, Loyal's wife, performed a highwire act in Coup's circus.

In addition to employees, Coup owed tens of thousands of dollars to printers, lithographers, and bill posters. Several local businessmen also won judgments, including George W. Latimer, an undertaker. Rather than attempting to fight his creditors in court, Coup decided to give up and allow the Wayne County Sheriff, Conrad J. Clippert, to seize his property in order to satisfy his debtors (F 8/25/1882, 6). Coup's circus was to be auctioned off to satisfy his creditors on September 16th.

In the meantime, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department was in charge of securing the property and caring for the animals. The approximately ninety unemployed men who were now stranded in Detroit posed another problem all together. The sympathetic Sheriff Clippert personally bought the men breakfast on the morning of the 26th. "Many of them say that they would be satisfied without any money," reported the News, "if they could secure transportation to their homes" (N 8/26/1882). The following day, Clippert allowed admission to be charged for a public viewing of the animals, with the proceeds going to benefit the stranded men (F 8/27/1882, 6).

Clippert, a German immigrant, served as
Wayne County Sheriff from 1880 to 1884.
Image courtesy of Google Books(Source)

Clippert temporarily hired fourteen of Coup's men to handle the increasingly expensive task of looking after the animals. The owner of the circus grounds, Luther Beecher (aka "Uncle Luther") first demanded $75 per day to continue using the land, which the Sheriff refused to pay (N 8/26/1882). This was later negotiated down to $25 a day (F 8/31/1882, 1). The water commissioner charged the camp $4 per day for water usage--negotiated down from $10. Simply feeding the animals was a monumental task, as the Free Press reported:

The hippopotamus and other animals with the Coup circus now stored on Michigan avenue, dispose of half a ton of hay, five or six bushels of oats, seventy-five pounds of fresh meats, eight or ten cabbages, a peck of turnips and half a bushel of apples per day. The cabbages, turnips and apples are made into a hash for the hippopotamus. (F 9/6/1882, 1)

The expenses were not paid for by "the citizens of the City of Detroit [taking] up a collection" as Austin claimed, but were simply covered by the proceeds of the sheriff's auction (F 9/6/1882, 1). And neither did William C. Coup "slip out of town in the middle of the night". Coup did have to travel to New York on September 4th, but he returned eight days later. The Free Press noted that "Mr. Coup has only increased the number of friends he has here by the manly, dignified manner in which he has faced his disaster in Detroit, and there is not one who will not rejoice to see him again on his feet." (F 8/27/1882, 13)

The Auction

The first day of the auction was Saturday, September 16, 1882 at the Corktown circus grounds. News of the auction attracted representatives of circuses and zoos from as far away as Canada and Mexico. In addition to a menagerie of animals, the items for sale included the circus' canvas tents, animal cages, a steam organ, various wagons and buggies, audience seating, a catapult, blacksmith tools, band uniforms, seven railroad cars, and many items for horses, including saddles, harnesses, and bridles. Also to be sold was a "balloon", which might have been Charles F. Ritchel's "Flying Machine" seen in previous advertisements for Coup's show.

Courtesy of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

The auction began at noon and was presided by John S. Griffin, a professional auctioneer and former Wayne County Coroner. The very first item up for bid was Coup's hippopotamus, who was sold for $2,900 to William Washington Cole, founder of what is now the Cole Bros. Circus (F 9/17/1882, 8). The other purchases of animals made that day as reported by the papers were:

William W. Cole: one wildebeest, $625; three hyenas, $33; and one yak, $150.

Frank Thompson of the Cincinnati Zoo: two porcupines, $50; two wolves, $12; six monkeys, $84; two sun bears, sold for $200 according to the Free Press, but $220 as reported by the News; and one jaguar (Free Press: $35, News: $135).

Harry L. Piper of the Toronto Zoo: one peccary, $11; one "ring tail" (Capuchin) monkey, $15; one royal Bengal tiger, either $400 (Free Press) or $500 (News); one kangaroo, $100; one emu (Free Press: $135, News: $13); and one ibex, $35. The News stated that Mr. Piper purchased a "sacred Brahmin bull" for $70, but the Free Press reported that he bought a "sacred cow" for $75. Maybe they're both right.

William D. Hagar, a former Coup employee: one "dog-faced monkey", $35; eight cockatoos, $72; and one black bear, $10.

George Middleton of the Circus Royal: two macaws, $33.

W.B. Hayes: three "Assyrian" sheep, $15.

S.G. and L.M. Ishback: two monkeys, $26

Richard Giff: three guinea pigs, $3.

"Mr. Walters": one axis deer, $25.

The two papers contradict one another regarding the purchase of a leopard and two lions. The News stated that the buyer was William D. Hagar, who bid $1,250; but the Free Press reported that the successful bidder was George W. Orrin, proprietor of the Orrin Brothers Circus in Mexico City.

From left to right: W. W. Cole, Harry L. Piper, and George Middleton.

Mostly inanimate objects were auctioned off on the second day, September 18, with only eight ponies being sold various buyers (F 9/19/1882, 6). On the third and final day, all remaining animals--eighty-eight horses and three elephants--were sold as a one lot, the reason being that they were collectively mortgaged, and that their buyer must assume that mortgage. The winning bidder was local livery dealer George F. Case, who purchased the lot for $18,652.50 (F 9/20/1882, 8). Among the horses were ten trained bronchos, including Nettle, the famous leaping horse. Case sold these bronchos to Joseph W. Hartford of Detroit, who planned to tour them internationally (F 10/12/1882, 1).

Case sold the three elephants to Hines Strowbridge of Cincinnati, who in turn sold one of them to Harry L. Piper of the Toronto Zoo (F 9/21/1882, 1). Camels, dogs and sea lions were mentioned in circus advertisements, but if any were sold at the auction, it was not reported by the newspapers.

There is no indication that any animals were sold to Luther Beecher, or that he financed their purchase. He attended the auction, but he "plainly showed [his] disgust at the rapid advance" of bids on the horses and elephants "and refused to bid" (N 9/19/1882).

I have found no evidence that any of the circus animals later fell into the hands of Beecher or anyone who would later be associated with the Detroit Zoological Garden, which did not open for another year. The only newspaper item that seemed to suggest otherwise was this single, ambiguous line published under "Sayings and Doings" in the Free Press on September 23, 1882:

Uncle Luther and W. C. Coup are cooking up some grand scheme, the nature of which is not yet apparent.

However, the same paper had previously called it a "popular delusion" that "Uncle Luther intends to purchase any of the Coup animals for Belle Isle Park" (9/17/1882, 15). It appears that Beecher's only connection to the future zoo would be his lease of the land to that institution.

The Real Cost of a Menagerie

Obtaining animals for the circus was an extremely expensive and dangerous enterprise for William C. Coup. In order to capture a baby elephant, he wrote in his autobiography, Sawdust and Spangles:

a native creeps cautiously in from behind [the mother elephant] and with one cut of a heavy broad-bladed knife severs the tendons of her hind legs. She is then disabled and falls to the ground. We promptly kill her, secure the ivory, and capture the little one. Of course we sometimes have a native or two killed in this kind of a hunt; but they don't cost much--only five to six dollars apiece...

"In capturing wild animals," Coup wrote, "the rule
is to kill the old ones and secure the young."
This illustration is from Sawdust and Spangles.

In this same book, Coup also told the story of young elephants taken away from their mothers so early that they were found suckling on objects. He gave them a bottle, over which "they fought in the most indescribably comical manner". At shows, he would exploit their habit of suckling by having them drink through hoses and "take their nourishment like human babies, their overgrown size making this infantile operation very comical and absurd."

"The herd of young elephants" from Coup's autobiography

But even Cole occasionally recognized the inhumanity of keeping wild animals for entertainment. When he was in this city, he told a reporter for The Detroit Evening News,

It is cruel, the way these poor creatures are dragged around the country in close cages, and I have often wished I could get along without that feature of the show. Many of the poor beasts die on the road in spite all of you can do for them, and some of the others suffer a great deal on account of the jolting, the cramped quarters, the lack of exercise and the changes of a climate to which they are unsuited. But the public will have traveling menageries, and showmen must carry them along. Lately the public have become unreasonable. They are not satisfied with two or three or half a dozen elephants. They want a herd of 20 elephants. Now what good does it do a man to see a herd of 20 elephants? Supplemented, probably, by an equally large herd of camels and dromedaries, a whole car load of monkeys and baboons, and other beasts in proportion? You say the public does not demand these things; and yet I tell you the show that advertises the most elephants carries off the cake... (N 8/30/1882)

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) categorically opposes the use of wild and exotic animals in circus acts "because of the stress, cruelty and physical, social and psychological deprivations that the animals inevitably suffer," and offers a list of circuses without wild animal acts. The Humane Society of the United States--which also opposes the use of animals in circuses--states that the laws that are supposed to protect the animals from cruelty and neglect are "insufficient and inconsistently enforced".

Circuses with animal attractions have been banned in cities throughout the world, including Buenos Aires, Vancouver, and even Cork, Ireland. Wild animal acts in circuses are banned outright in the nations of Austria, Singapore, Costa Rica, and Finland. Hopefully the capture and exploitation of wild animals for the sake of entertainment will one day be only a relic of a barbaric past.

About Me

I love old houses, old maps, and local history, and I used to run the Corktown History Blog. I've lived in the City of Detroit as well as suburbs in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. I now live in Farmington Hills.